Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what Government spending was on the Plug-in car grant in each of the last five years; and what estimate his Department has made of Government spending on that grant in each of the last five years.

Andrew Jones

The plug-in car grant awards consumers a discount on the cost of a new ultra low emission vehicle. It has proved successful in growing the UK’s early market for ultra low emission vehicles, which is now the largest in the EU and the fourth largest in the world. The Government intends that nearly all cars and vans will be zero emission by 2050.

Government spending on the plug-in car grant in each of the last financial years was as follows:

2010/11 £1m

2011/12 £4.5m

2012/13 £11m

2013/14 £20.5m

2014/15 £90.5m

The plug-in car grant is guaranteed to continue at £5,000 per vehicle until February 2016. The Chancellor announced at Spending Review 2015 that more than £600m will be spent on support for ultra low emission vehicles in the five years from 2015 to 2020. This funding means the grants can remain for several years after February, as long as there is a demonstrable market need. Future grant levels will be announced shortly.